South Carolina imposes sales tax on retail sales of tangible personal property.  South Carolina generally does not impose a sales tax on intangible property, however, certain intangible property is deemed to be tangible personal property that is subject to sales tax.  Deemed tangible personal property includes charges for communications.  South Carolina defines charges for communications to include the proceeds accruing from the charges for the ways or means for the transmission of the voice or messages.  The South Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR) takes the position charges ...

In the summer of 2019, I wrote a short blog on the death of the PCORI fee -- Ding, Dong, the PCORI Fee is Dead!.  When enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, the fee was set to expire with plan/policy years ending after September 30, 2019.

The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, signed by President Trump on December 20, 2019, extended the PCORI fee for another ten years.  The fee is now set to expire with plan/policy years ending after September 30, 2029.

So, Ding, Dong, the PCORI Fee is NOT Dead!

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (the “Appropriations Act”) that includes the “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019” (the “SECURE Act”). The SECURE Act contains 27 provisions which are intended to modernize and expand the availability and effectiveness of retirement plans (including Individual Retirement Accounts or IRAs).

Unfortunately, due to the number of provisions in the SECURE Act, this Article will be limited to provisions with a significant impact on retirement ...

Since 2015, employers and health insurers have been required to report health plan coverage information to the IRS and to individuals.  Why?  The information is necessary in order for the IRS to administer certain portions of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), such as whether (1) a “pay or play” penalty is assessable for noncompliance with the coverage requirements, (2) an individual is eligible for a premium tax subsidy, and (3) the individual mandate penalty is assessable.

Recently issued Notice 2019-63 contains three gifts from the IRS in the form of limited relief to ...

The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW) administers the South Carolina unemployment benefit program for state residents, and which is funded by a state-wide unemployment tax on employee wages. Employers are responsible for the payment of this tax.

SCDEW, and its predecessor agency, the South Carolina Employment Commission Security Commission, have had financial difficulties raising sufficient unemployment taxes to be able to pay unemployment benefits to South Carolina workers. The financial problems became so significant that SCDEW became ...

South Carolina state tax liens were previously recorded each county’s register of deeds, register of mesne conveyance, or clerk of court (i.e. in the same place where real property records are recorded).  In March 2019 the South Carolina General Assembly passed a law authorizing the South Carolina Department of Revenue (SCDOR or DOR) to implement a statewide system of filing and indexing liens.

SCDOR has now created a statewide lien recording system, which is accessible online.  As of November 1, 2019, SCDOR will no longer file tax liens, satisfactions, or expungements with county ...

Generally, a 403(b) plan is a retirement planning program whereby a public school or tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (including churches) makes contributions for their employees (and certain ministers) to specific types of funding arrangements (i.e., annuity contracts, custodial accounts, or retirement income accounts [which are limited to church employees and ministers]).  Historically, 403(b) plans utilized annuities as their funding vehicles.  Thus, 403(b) plans are often referred to as tax sheltered annuities or TSA plans.

In 2007, the Internal Revenue Service ...

Posted in: Federal Tax

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (collectively referred to hereafter as “IRS”) on September 23, 2019 published the final regulations on hardship distributions, finalizing the regulations proposed in November 2018.  The plans primarily affected are 401(k) and 403(b) plans.  The final regulations reflect changes in the Internal Revenue Code dating back to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.  The preamble states that the regulations are substantially similar to the proposed regulations and, notably ...

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, signed into law December 4, 2015, created new Internal Revenue Code § 7345 which requires the IRS to notify the United States State Department when an individual is certified as owing a “seriously delinquent tax debt”. When this notification of certification is received from the IRS, the State Department is generally required to deny the individual a U.S. passport (or renewal of a U.S. passport) or may revoke any U.S. passport previously issued to that individual. The State Department has the sole authority to revoke or ...

Posted in: Federal Tax

Spouses who file a joint income tax return are both jointly and severally liable for the taxes associated with the return, both federally and at the state level.  If the joint tax liability is not paid, or additional tax is assessed through an audit, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state taxing authority (the South Carolina Department of Revenue in the case of South Carolina) will pursue both spouses in an effort to collect the tax.  One spouse may have believed that the other spouse had paid the taxes, or that all income and deductions were properly reported, only to find out a few years ...

Posted in: Federal Tax
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